Law & Insurance

Ten Questions to Conjure With:

In the Dalkon Shield litigation, where did the Federal District
Court get the estimate of the value of 320,000 unresolved claims
that it accepted, and the Circuit Court affirmed, enabling A.H. Robins
to emerge from bankruptcy?

When Halliburton Corporation recently announced the estimated
value of its asbestos liability as against its insurance coverage,
a move which the Wall Street Journal credited with triggering a large
upsurge in its stock price, where did this authoritative estimate
come from?

In the Agent Orange litigation, who did the alternative venue
surveys and jury research which, as reported by the New York Post,
led the lead defendant to agree to a settlement that has since been
acclaimed as one of the wisest financial decisions in mass tort history?

In the silicone implant litigation, who were the chief analysts
and estimators for the lead parent corporation of the bankrupt
defendant, helping to shape all aspects of the settlement and reorganization
plan?

Who first suggested - in 1982 - the concept of a common claim
facility to deal with the flood of mass tort claims at the lowest
possible overhead cost, which has since become the standard response
to this kind of challenge?

Who served as the California Superior Court's Referee in the single
land use case involving more than one-quarter of all the parcels
in the City of Los Angeles?

Who was Chief Consultant to the Governor's Advisory Commission
on Liability Insurance that rewrote New York State tort and insurance
law?

Who served as the Special Monitors of the California Superior
Court for the Los Angeles school desegregation case, the case involving
the largest school district ever subjected to a general Court Order
on desegregation?

Who did the analytic work and headed the negotiating team for
the Federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in the largest corporate
bankruptcy it had faced as a guarantor?

Who developed the industry standard tools for tracking and improving
insurance professionals' skills in valuing and negotiating bodily
injury claims?

The answer to all ten questions, and many more like them, is HR&A.
Over 25 years of continuous involvement in law and insurance-related
consulting of many varieties, HR&A has emerged as one of a handful
of firms most looked to by seasoned litigating and negotiating counsel,
courts, insurance executives and public officials for analytics of
the quality necessary to withstand the most intense scrutiny, whether
on or off the witness stand.

The firm offers a complete range of analytic and expert services to
attorneys, courts, corporate and public agency law departments, insurers
and others who need work products and presentations which meet this
exacting standard. The firm and its individual Partners have been qualified
by courts as experts in a wide variety of fields, and have worked at
one time or another with most of the law firms in the AmLaw 100, as
well as many smaller firms. While its Law and Insurance-Related Practice
is very diverse, HR&A specializes in complex cases requiring multi-disciplinary
and multi-functional support. The following are the firm's nine core
service areas:

Mass tort-related value estimation and associated services; HR&A
has been very prominent in both individual and class action litigation
involving asbestos, Agent Orange, the Dalkon Shield, silicone implants,
tobacco, and other sources of huge lawsuit volume. Having initiated
the concept of a single facility to resolve toxic tort claims in a
landmark report on asbestos litigation, HR&A has been deeply
involved in creation and operation of several of the Trusts created
to deal with such claims.

Bankruptcy and securities-related analysis and negotiating services;
Several of HR&A's major engagements have been in a bankruptcy
context, whether caused by projected mass tort liability, or conventional
business failure, or such exotic circumstances as the bankruptcy
of one of the nation's largest medical schools. The firm has also
provided expert services on asset valuation in a variety of involved
securities issues, as well as on behalf of investment banks considering
the purchase of shares of troubled companies.

Public policy-related litigation services; HR&A has rendered
expert analytic services in many major public sector litigation
and arbitration contexts, where its clients have been counsel representing
Federal, State or local governments, parties bringing actions against
governments, parties to regulatory proceedings, or private groups
seeking to influence public policy decisions.

Voting rights and other discrimination-related case analysis and
expert services; HR&A has played a leading analytic and expert
witness role in landmark cases brought under the Federal Voting Rights
Act, from Houston, to Cincinnati, to numerous California jurisdictions
where much first impression voting rights case law has been made. No
counsel has ever lost a voting rights case in which he/she engaged
HR&A's expert services. The firm has also done expert analysis
and testimony in cases brought under anti-discrimination laws dealing
with housing, minority employment, and other such problems.

Remedy-phase services to courts; HR&A Partners rank among
the relatively few non-attorneys whom courts have named Referee or
Special Monitor in civil actions of landmark size and importance.
These assignments have come in fields as diverse as land use and
school desegregation, as well as in toxic torts. The firm has also
served as designated Expert for several courts, both Federal and
State.

Regulatory proceedings-related services; The firm has worked extensively
in the context of proceedings of regulatory bodies governing such
areas as land use, water rights, annexation/secession, military base
reuse, cable television franchising, environmental protection, medical
quality assurance, property/casualty insurance, downtown and neighborhood
redevelopment, rent stabilization, and international claims.

Law reform-related services; HR&A has organized and led the
staffs of official and private Commissions which contributed to
major changes in the tort law of both California and New York, while
also performing major policy-related research in many other States.
The firm's work has also been instrumental in changes in the law
governing numerous other activities.

Law-related institution building services; HR&A has prepared
the feasibility studies underlying substantive research and organizational
designs of new institutions which have become important assets
of the legal system. Examples include the nation's leading source
of dispassionate, empirically-based research on the civil justice
system, the primary source of such research on the Workers' Compensation
system, and the country's most generously endowed State-based public
policy research organization.

Claim valuation and negotiation practice analysis; HR&A developed
the DATACLAIM, CLAIMWORTH and HARMWORTH tools for analyzing how
claim professionals reach their valuations and then perform the negotiations
which determine how much each claim is actually worth. These systems
have been applied to the total claim staffs of a number of major
property/casualty insurers and non-insurer claim handlers as both
diagnostic and training tools.

These summary descriptions of the firm's core service areas suggest
the breadth and depth of the Practice. The following pages provide
more detailed descriptions of the examples provided in the course of
compiling the firm's extensive track record in each core area.

The overall business of HR&A is to provide its clients with policy
planning, management and financial advice that is as authoritative
as experienced judgment and analytic expertise can make it.